Hello, Can someone please help me with my chances of getting in to Columbia law school
I’m also graduating in 3 years instead of the traditional 4. I’ll be 20 when applying to law school. I’m worried that being younger would look bad
If you have taken the LSAT only once, you should consider retaking in an effort to get a higher score.
20% of applicants are admitted. Of those, just 20% were entering directly from undergraduate- at least 70% had worked and 10% had other grad degrees…
As @Publisher indicates, the 165 isn’t going to help you: both the median and the average was 170 last year.
IMO, applying straight out and relatively young won’t help you. Go work full time in that law firm for a year & apply then.
Check this out: http://columbia.lawschoolnumbers.com/stats/1415
For 165 LSAT there is only one green dot (acceptance) and that person was an URM with 4.1 GPA.
Im definitely retaking my LSAT and aiming for 170, but again so is everyone.
Say I do acquire 170 on my LSAT, will that kinda overshadow the fact that I’m only 20. On the other hand, I really don’t wanna waste a year out of law school cause a) I wanna be in the city so bad and b) I’m 110% committed to pursuing a career in civil rights law. The reason I work 25hrs/ week in a law firm is to show that I’m mature enough to handle school and a part time position
Here is the class profile for Columbia Law school. Your LSAT is low and only 21% of the class comes in directly from college. You can figure out your odds of admittance. https://www.law.columbia.edu/admissions/jd/experience/class-profile If you want NYC also consider NYU (which would be another reach and only 27% of the class comes directly out of college) http://www.law.nyu.edu/jdadmissions/applicants/classprofile and Fordham law schools.
I agree with the others that you would be better off working for a couple of years, raising your LSAT, and then applying.
Law schools, may be ABA rule, do not want first year law students working outside of law school related clinics.
If you go to work full-time for a law firm (whether where you are working part-time or a different one), you would not be wasting a year, you would be getting relevant experience- and you would be working in the city.
fyi, giving your first reason for going straight to law school as “I wanna be in the city so bad” does not convey maturity.
my reason for going to law school isn’t that I wanna be in the city. I wouldn’t base off the entirety of my career off of location. I’m just saying that Columbia is the full package for me because it’s located in a city full of opportunities. @collegemom3717
Rule #1 for law school: read the text carefully. You omitted or overlooked the “straight to”
Thanks for everyone’s input!
I’m currently a sophomore so I still have sometime to plan ahead for my LSAT and possibly a gap year too.